We spent Friday and Saturday in Worcester and Somerset counties. Friday highlights (for us) were a calling NORTHERN BOBWHITE on Cherrix Road in the afternoon, an AMERICAN BITTERN and a BLACK SKIMMER at Truitt's Landing between 6:00 and 8:00pm, and two calling CHUCK-WILL'S-WIDOWS on Boxiron (Box Iron?) Road around 8:30pm. While we were at Truitt's, Joe took pictures of many SEASIDE SPARROWS, and discovered after downloading them that one, shot at a distance, was a SALTMARSH SPARROW. We also heard many VIRGINIA RAILS at Truitt's and saw two chicks scrambling back into the vegetation. (Earlier in the week, we had watched Virginia Rail chicks working in a puddle near the non-bayside boat ramp on Elliott Island Road; those were less skittish.)

On Saturday we had many more Virginia Rails and two calling CLAPPER RAILS in the Deal Island area. We looked for the EURASIAN COLLARED DOVES reported by Jim Green just north of Pocomoke City and heard the cooing right after we arrived, though we did not see the birds. We saw a HORNED LARK on Vessey Orchard Road and a RED-HEADED WOODPECKER on Fleming Mill Road, the latter in Worcester County. Jim's post also led us to the bridges over Dividing Creek; it's always a pleasure to see PROTHONOTARY WARBLERS.

Also noteworthy were the ubiquitous MARSH WRENS and the presence of nearly all the large waders, which were, in addition to the bittern: GREAT BLUE HERON, GREAT EGRET, SNOWY EGRET, LITTLE BLUE HERON, TRICOLORED HERON, CATTLE EGRET, GREEN HERON, BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT HERON, and GLOSSY IBIS. Admittedly, many of these species are not unusual for the time and place, but we were happy to find them. 

Leslie Starr & Joe Turner
Baltimore